One of the disadvantages to long school days is the length of time students have to sit at their desks, listening to the teacher lecture or doing schoolwork. According to school nurse Misty Garrison, sitting in uncomfortable chairs can lead to long term back pain in the future. A way to fix that problem is simply with good body posture.

“Good body posture is important for future back problems,” Garrison said. “The correct sitting position includes sitting up with your shoulders aligned over your hips, your feet resting flatly on the floor, and your knees bent at a 90 degree angle.”

Some other tips for a better sitting position are crossing your ankles instead of crossing your legs, Garrison said.

“It’s really important that you’re in a chair that is the right for your height,” Garrison said. “For shorter people whose feet might not reach the floor, they should scoot forward. And for taller people, it might be more comfortable for them to stretch out their legs instead of letting their knees bang up against the desk.”

Senior Kaylee Horn said she prefers chairs that allow her feet to touch the ground.

“Personally, I like when you can adjust the height on the chairs because I am very short and it’s more comfortable if my feet are fully on the ground,” Horn said. “And when the chairs have some sort of padding to sit on.”

Garrison also said the good sitting position promotes proper circulation in the body.

“With age, our vertebra starts to clump over anyways, but bad posture will make it worst,” Garrison said. “You’ll often see older people have a hump in their back and that possibly could be from incorrect posture.”

Garrison said slouching is when the shoulders are farther forward than the hips.

“Teens probably slouch more because it’s more comfortable to them.” Garrison said.

Horn said she thinks teens slouch because they are sitting all day and leaning all the time to do work.

“It would be nice to get rid of all the desks and just have tables and chairs,” Horn said. “I like to be close to the table and can’t do that in the desks with the built-in chairs.”

Sophomore Raeleann Weigel said the biggest reason why she slouches was because of the quality of the chairs.

“To me, the black and grey chairs in the math rooms are the most comfortable chairs compared to the others because I can actually touch my feet on the ground and my back doesn’t hurt after sitting for a long period of time,” Weigel said. “Either way, I think an average student should not be sitting for any more than four hours.”

16nvuong@usd489.com